


Zutara Week 2017

by noirefemmefatale



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M, Steambabies - Freeform, Zutara Week, Zutara Week 2017
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-23
Updated: 2017-07-29
Packaged: 2018-12-05 23:14:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 9,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11588154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noirefemmefatale/pseuds/noirefemmefatale
Summary: Zuko and Katara adjust to adult life as the rulers of the Fire Nation and parents. The ups and downs of their life following the war and their marriage.My entries for Zutara Week 2017





	1. Fire Lady

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which, Katara tries to be the perfect Fire Lady at the expense of her happiness but remembers who she is.

“Our schools need more funding so that teachers can be trained to stop teaching the children of the Fire Nation the propaganda that was forced on them during the war,” Katara told, pointing to the outline she’d drafted, “We also need to work to get our historians ready to start writing new history books and getting firsthand accounts from the 100 Year War survivors.”

            Zuko’s budget advisors looked amongst themselves, exchanging silent words through their eyes, then at the Fire Lady. “We’ve already trained the teachers. We gave them week long seminars on what to say about the war and what not to say. We simply can’t afford to rework the budget right now for your little projects.”

            Katara felt her temper flare but as Fire Nation custom demanded, she shoved it down and kept her face blank.

            “Aren’t you currently overseeing the addition of maternity wards to hospitals in four cities around the nation?” another asked, his nose in the air, “And you just gave birth. You mustn’t spread yourself too thin.”

            Katara wanted to say that she could be a mother and manage multiple things at once but kept her mouth shut.

            Another reached out a hand towards Katara in a false sense of comradery. “In time, you will learn how Fire Nation women handle the demands of daily life.”

            Katara wanted to pull the tea from their cups and show them how she handled the demands of daily life and helped win a war but merely folded her hands on her lap.

            The three advisors left Katara, with bows of their heads that were almost disrespectful, without another word. Katara put her head on her desk and groaned. She’d been in the position of Fire Lady for about two years now and the advisors and nobles still treated her as if she was just putting the flame crown in her hair. She’d changed everything for this nation that refused to accept her. Gone were the blues and whites of her home, now the only colors she wore were the reds and golds that were second nature to the Fire Nation. She’d retired the loops that marked her as a proud and strong woman of the Southern Water Tribe, instead adopting the traditional topknot of her new people. What hurt most was not having her daughter, Cana, strapped to her chest when she went about her daily business. Every time her breasts leaked milk, yearning to offer more of herself to her newborn, she was expected to feel shame in place of the pride that would have come from being in her homeland.

            Katara told her assistant, a position that was common for Fire Nation officials to have filled, to cancel the rest of her meetings and went to the nursey. The royal nanny, an older woman with blinding white hair atop her pale head, held the Crown Princess in her arms. When Cana cried, reaching for her mother, the nanny pulled the baby closer to her chest.

            “My apologies, Fire Lady,” the nanny said quickly, “the princess has been rather testy today.”

            “That’s alright,” Katara said, gazing at her baby fondly, “I can hold her. She probably misses her mother.”

            The nanny looked at Katara with her mouth slightly openly. “With all due respect, _Fire Lady_ , it is not proper for someone of your station to spend her time calming a crying baby.” Her tone was anything but respectful.

            Katara straightened as the baby, who had her deep brown skin but Zuko’s light brown eyes, screwed up her face and wailed. Every instinct was telling her to take the baby from the nanny’s arms and coo until she was calm but she knew that she had to follow Fire Nation custom if she was ever going to be accepted by the people. Katara tucked a lock of dark brown curls behind her ear, preparing to leave the room and go about whatever business she had waiting for her, when the door opened again. Iroh walked in slowly, the seven years since the war was taking its toll on him, even though he had set up a shop in Ba Sing Se as soon as he could.

            “Ah, my lovely niece,” he greeted, his tone light. When he heard the baby crying, his wrinkled face twisted in slight displeasure. “My grandniece is crying? Oh, this simply won’t do.”

            Iroh plucked the baby from the nanny’s arms before the woman could protest then softly deposited Cana into Katara’s embrace. Almost instantly, the baby quieted, reaching her tiny fists to her face and promptly falling asleep. The nanny’s mouth opened and closed, as if she wanted to say something but wouldn’t dare with the Dragon of the West in the room. Iroh smiled kindly.

            “Let’s take a walk, shall we, Katara?” When Iroh saw Katara move to give the baby back to the nanny, he put a hand on her arm to stop her. “Let’s bring the little princess. I’m sure she misses her mother.”

            The ending of the statement, _and her mother misses her_ , was unspoken but heard by all in the room.

Katara followed Iroh through the halls of the palace, earning strange looks when eyes fell on the princess in Katara’s arms. She knew that their looks were meant to shame her but she let them roll off her shoulders; Katara had never felt more herself in the Fire Nation than with her child nestled in her arms where she was supposed to be. The feeling of rightness slid over Katara as she gazed at the baby’s sleeping face, guided through the palace by Iroh. She only looked up when she realized they’d stopped in a hall that was dimly lit and vacant apart from guards at the mouth.

“My nephew wrote to me and told me that I needed to come back to the palace immediately,” Iroh told. All lightness from before was gone from his voice. His amber eyes, surrounded by wrinkles and laugh lines, gazed up at Katara.

Katara shifted when Cana wriggled in her arms, trying to get more comfortable in the arms that shouldn’t have felt so foreign. “Is there something wrong? I know he’s been stressed about the building of Republic City.”

“I don’t doubt that he is,” Iroh allowed, “but I was implored to come to the palace because he’s worried about you. I didn’t believe him at first but his words were confirmed when I saw you in nursey a moment ago. I have traveled to the water tribes, both as a friend and an enemy. No tribeswoman that I know would have been ready to walk away from her crying child. What is going on, Katara?”

Katara felt her shoulders sag and tears appeared on the brim of her ocean hued eyes. “I keep trying to follow Fire Nation customs and be the perfect Fire Lady but nothing is working.” She angled her face so that her tears would not fall on her daughter. “Every proposal is shot down, every time I speak there’s someone looking at me as if I haven’t been Fire Lady for two years. As if I haven’t been bending and breaking myself for four years, trying to be like them and get them to accept me. It seems like they respect me less now than when I first came to the palace as an ambassador. It’s tearing me apart, Uncle.”

“I can see that and that’s why I have brought you here.”

Iroh inclined his head to the wall before them. Katara looked up at a painting she’d never seen before, not in the history books she’d studied before marrying Zuko nor in her many explorations of the palace. The portrait was reminiscent of the one she had and Zuko had had done shortly after getting married, Instead of the Fire Lady being swallowed by the red of the Fire Nation, she proudly wore the green and brown of the Earth Kingdom. The woman’s boxy jaw was tilted in the air, a pose Katara knew must have hurt her neck to hold for the countless hours that sitting for a portrait demanded. The Fire Lady crown glinted in her dark hair. Katara stared at the painting for a long time, not noticing how much time had passed until Cana was blinking her eyes open and staring a cry low in her throat.

“If I remember correctly from my time as a new father, that is about to turn into a rather loud, hungry, cry,” Iroh guessed softly.

“I should get her to the wet nurse,” Katara replied, but the words felt wrong in her throat.

“Katara.” Iroh waited until Katara turned her gaze from the portrait to his face. “You are water, living amongst fire. While it may feel easier to be turned to vapor, remember that your element is a balance. You are not finding balance, you are being snuffed out. I brought you to this painting to show you that you can be Fire Lady without losing who you are. Study the past Fire Ladies, learn from their mistakes but allow yourself to make your own. If you’ll excuse me.”

Katara watched Iroh go as Cana started to cry. She realized that she didn’t know what her daughter’s different cries meant and felt tears start to flow. Katara tried to open her robes to feed her daughter but she was bound so tightly that she couldn’t do it with one hand. Katara cried harder as she remembered the way new mothers in her tribe changed their clothing so that they could easily slip their children through the folds to feed them while also protecting them from the cold.

With tears streaming down her face, Katara sped to the Fire Lady’s chambers. She set the wailing child down on the bed and tried to disrobe. When she couldn’t figure out the twists of fabric that her servants expertly crafted each morning, she bent a sharp icicle from the moisture in the air and began to saw. Once her chest was free, Katara lifted Cana to her breast. It took a while Cana to latch onto the unfamiliar nipple but once she did, Katara smiled at the baby.

Zuko found Katara sitting in one of her chairs, with their daughter drinking from her mother’s breast and tears in his wife’s eyes. He blinked slowly, not used to the sight of a noblewoman, especially a Fire Lady, breastfeeding her own child.

“Has the wet nurse fallen ill?” he asked, perching himself on the arm of the chair.

Katara shifted Cana in her arms. “No. I decided I wanted to feed my child. I was nourished on milk from my mother, as was Sokka and every other person in the water tribes. We are strong due to our deep connection to family. I’ll be damned if my children don’t know that same connection. I’ve spent our entire marriage trying to assimilate to a culture that had no intention of accepting me, whether I wore the blues of my home or not. I’m done.”

“What are you saying?” Zuko asked softly, his heart beating faster. His mother had left him, he’d been cast away from his home, when he felt like his life was getting better it fell through without fail. Now his wife was leaving with their child. Every time he found a bit of happiness, it was torn away from him. The cycle never stopped.

“I want to wear blue,” Katara declared.

Zuko’s head fell forward and he curled in on himself. “I’ll send an admiral to ready the fastest ship in the fleet. You should be able to make it to the Southern Water Tribe in a little under two weeks, maybe faster if you help with waterbending.”

Katara shifted the now fed Cana in her arms to lay her hand on her husband’s face. “Zuko, what are you talking about? All I need you to do is send the fastest seamstress to my room. And while you’re at it, have a few strong guards start moving my things into the Fire Lord’s chambers. Married couples share a bed where I’m from and that’s a tradition I’d like to keep going in my new home.”

“So, you don’t want to leave?” Hope showed its way into his heart.

“When are you going to accept that you’re stuck with me forever, Zuko? I don’t want to leave but I do want to bring pieces of my past to the Fire Nation.”

Zuko bent to kiss his wife’s forehead and after a moment, pressed his lips to the soft skin of his newborn daughter’s cheek. A joyous laugh bubbled from his throat. “I’ll find the seamstress right away. You should probably cover up before she comes.”

“They’re just breasts, Zuko,” Katara teased but moved to tug one of her bending practice shirts over her chest.

Cana dozed happily, swathed in the torn fabric that Katara had been wearing earlier and happily taking in her mother’s comforting sea smell with every breath, when the seamstress came in. Katara had taken down her top knot, twisting her hair into a haphazard bun and shoving the golden flame in that instead. The practice shirt hung loosely from her torso and conflicted with the grand skirt of the dress she’d been wearing. Despite the stare of disarray Katara sat in, she had a small smile on her face as she read a Fire Nation fable from a scroll. The seamstress paused when she saw the Fire Lady looking less than her usual, over polished self, with the princess sleeping on the vast bed, but regained her composure quickly. She wasn’t used to seeing the Fire Lady smile or hum. It vanished again when Katara began to detail the new garments she waited made, all in varying shades of blue.

News of Katara’s wardrobe change spread like wild fire and the rumors that she was leaving the Fire Nation came on its heels. When Katara, dressed in blue and trimmed in white, walked into the budget meeting at Zuko’s side with Cana strapped to her chest, all eyes were on her. The topknot was still there, but now it was joined by strands of hair that framed her face in loops, held in place by one red bead and one blue. Their eyes never strayed from the Fire Lady, proudly screaming her heritage without saying a word. Katara kept her chin high during the meeting and when Cana stirred, calling for food, Katara shifted the baby under her robes and began to nurse without missing a beat in her words.

The people of the palace marveled at the tribal tattoos that covered Katara’s arms and disappeared beneath the neckline of her new dresses. When the Fire Lady spoke now, she was a new woman. No longer was her voice timid and subdued. Katara allowed her voice to be heard, strong, sure and backed by her ancestors that had made a home in the harsh tundra of the south. She commanded attention, demanded authority and acquired respect.

Within the week, the portrait that displayed Katara in red robes was replaced. Now, she wore a bright blue number that came to her ankles and had a hand on Zuko’s shoulder. The two didn’t look at the portrait painter, they gazed at each other with love that carried through the thick paint and showed that times in the Fire Nation were changing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I honestly feel that there's no way the Fire Nation could have survived as long as it did without having a Fire Lady (or even Lord) from a different nation. I also feel like Katara would try so hard to be what she think she needed to be, that she would end up losing herself. Unlike in canon however, she snaps to her senses and realizes that she is a much needed voice in the world. I also couldn't resist showing that Zuko will also carry some hurt in his heart about being so freaking unhappy growing up and Katara had to help him see for himself that his deserving of love.


	2. Underwater

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which Zuko notices his wife more rundown that usual and decides to do something about it.

Katara did her best not to pinch the bridge of her nose as she breathed out heavily. She was sure that if she’d been a firebender smoke would have come from her nose. The men across from her, the team that Zuko had appointed to help her with completing projects, stared at her with blank looks on their faces.

            “Don’t all the Fire Nation citizens already have health care?” one asked.

            This time, Katara did pinch the bridge of her nose. “No, they don’t. They can’t afford it. Hospitals and doctors across the nation and raising their rates within their private practices and because they’re private practices, we can’t do anything about the rates. What we can do, is provide a nationwide health care program that allows for low income citizens to still be able to see a doctor whenever they need.”

            “What about tax increases?” The man tugged at the neck of his robes. “If we pay for their health care, we’ll have less money.”

            Katara was saved from having to freeze the man to the wall by the crying of her daughter, Aiko. “Excuse me.”

            The men left in a hurry, not wanting to witness Katara breastfeeding her third child. She nursed the small child and moved to the window of her meeting room to look out at the royal garden. Cana, her eldest child, played with her brother, Kylo. She made a dragon of fire dance around the young boy of three before sending it into the sky with a shower of sparks. Their guards clapped excitedly, glad that their princess was already so proficient in her bending at the age of five. Katara’s smile faded when Kylo, trying to catch a spark, launched himself into the pond. One of the guards jumped in to fetch the prince before he could even start sputtering.

            Katara closed the curtain to the window before swathing Aiko who had started to yawn. Katara had found her rhythm as Fire Lady after seven years of being married to Zuko. She had three children, a loving husband and flourishing nation. She had no downtime. Due to her energy with pushing projects forward once she’d figured out how to hold onto her heritage and be Fire Lady, everyone expected her to keep going with the same vigor. It was the same thing they expected of Zuko and it was taking a toll on both rulers.

            Katara placed Aiko into the basinet made for her office before sinking into a chair. When Zuko entered the office, looking for a sparring partner, he found his wife bent over the chair. Her hair fell forward over her face, the delicate crown in her hair threatening to fall to the floor and her breath coming and going steadily. Zuko walked as softly as he could to look down at this sleeping daughter. The baby opened her small mouth as he stroked her caramel colored cheek and gave a small coo as he stroked a knuckled on her arm. Katara woke immediately at the sound and her husband was frozen to the ceiling before he could lift his head to look at her.

            “I’m so sorry,” Katara told, her neck craned to look at his mildly annoyed face. Katara burst out in laughter the warmed Zuko’s heart and pulled a chuckle of his own from his throat.

            “It’s been so long since you froze me to something,” he teased. “I think our little lovely likes it.”

            Aiko’s blue eyes were open and trained on the popsicle that was her father above her. She giggled when he melted the ice around himself and dropped to the ground. He closed the distance between him and his chuckling wife with one step. Zuko pulled Katara in by her waist to kiss her. As he lowered his face, tickling her with his long hair, the deep bags under her eyes didn’t slip past him. He’d have to fix that.

            “MOM!” Cana shouted, crashing through the door and causing her little sister to start wailing, “Ky bit me!”

            “I didn’t mean to,” Kylo blubbered, fat tears rolling down his sun kissed face. He pulled on his hair, the texture of Zuko’s straight locks but with the color of his mother’s chocolate tresses.

            Katara leveled her eyes at her husband, both trying to figure out who would calm which child. Katara smiled triumphantly when Zuko moved towards Aiko, swooping the baby into his arms. Katara crouched and put her arms around her other children’s’ shoulders, leading them out of the room, a lecture about playing nicely with each already tumbling from her lips.

            Zuko lightly rocked the baby, watching the door where his wife had disappeared a moment ago. “We have to do something nice for Mommy, yes we do.”

            Aiko quieted, as if agreeing with Zuko. Zuko left Katara’s office, walking two doors down to his own and daring any of the palace occupants to question him caring his newborn around. He shifted the baby to one arm so that he could flip through the many scrolls, detailing the budget and extra money the Fire Nation had left over.

            A week later, Katara was lead through the Fire Lady’s gardens by Cana. Zuko had tied a strip of fabric around her eyes and assured her that she would love her surprise. When he removed the fabric, she stood in front of pond she frequently used to practice her waterbending privately. There were new flowers along the edge.

            “Ta da!” Kylo shouted. “Surprise Mama!”

            Kylo latched himself to his mother’s leg and just as Katara was about to sweep the boy into her arms, Zuko guided him away. “As much as I know you love flowers, that isn’t the only surprise. Do the push and pull thing with your bending.”

            Katara raised an eyebrow. “One day when we have time I’ll teach you the name of my forms.”

            If possible, Zuko’s amber eyes grew brighter. Katara spread her legs wide and allowed herself to bend the pond. The water parted to reveal earth steps. Her jaw dropped open.

            Zuko put Kylo’s hand in Cana’s. “Watch your brother for a moment. I’m going to show Mommy her surprise.”

            “Surprise!” Kylo shouted again.

            Zuko took Katara’s hand with a broad smile. As they descended the stairs, Katara noticed small, blue illuminated stones dotting the wall. The farther she went, the more she felt the water of the pond around her. When the stairs finally ended Katara and Zuko were standing before three natural pools. Chairs pulled directly from the earth had been erected in a semicircle around the smallest pool. Katara closed her eyes, feeling at utter peace, before remembering the man beside her. When she turned to look at her husband, there were tears in her eyes.

            “How?”

            “It pays to have the Avatar as a close friend.” Zuko shrugged nonchalantly but she could see the pride behind his eyes. “There are natural geysers all over the palace ground, but they were covered. I looked at their locations and realized there were some underground springs beneath the Fire Lady gardens. All it took was contacting Aang and swearing him to secrecy. You deserve to have a place that’s all yours.”

            Katara wrapped her arms around Zuko before tilting her head back to kiss him. “I’m so glad you’re all mine.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoy this chapter! I've had a pretty crappy day so far but I didn't want to get behind. Tomorrow's chapter will be the reason this fic is rated M so if you don't like that, I'll see you for the Soulmates prompt (which I'm very excited to write). Thank you so much for reading.


	3. Steamy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reminder that this chapter is rated M. It's mild, because I didn't want to go into the E rating but it's clearly sexual.

Zuko tried to his hardest to look for his wife without making it obvious that he was looking for his wife. The largest ballroom in the Fire Nation palace was full to the brim with guests who had travelled from the farthest corners of the world for his thirtieth birthday party. In reality, most of the attendees were either political powers or people Katara had befriended during her travels. The latter fact was made clear when a group of nomads, who had clearly had too much of the imported cactus juice Sokka had demanded, broke into song about a secret tunnel. A small smile lit up his face when Zuko spied his wife, dressed elegantly in the colors of his nation, swaying to the song and bending the ice sculptures with the other waterbenders in attendance.

            “If you’ll excuse me,” Zuko said to the uptight Fire Nation couple that had decided to use his party as a time to talk about expanding their land for half the price.

            Katara bent at the waist, her arms moving languidly, with a brilliant smile on her face. If possible, it grew even more when she noticed Zuko on the edge of the crowd she drew. Aiko, who was now two, reached out for the tendrils of water that her mother kept just above her head. Cana, who was a proud nine, tilted her head back and blew out a stream of fine, joining her mother’s element. Zuko sent his own flame to join his daughter’s, causing claps to soar into the air. With another twist of her body, Katara formed the water into an ice heart with Zuko’s name carved into it. Once she was sure he’d seen it, she transformed the ice into snow.

            Katara bowed to the crowd before moving to stand next to her husband and slipping her hand in his. “Are you enjoying your party, Fire Lord?”

            “I didn’t know this room could hold so many people.”

            “Let’s get away,” Katara suggested.

            “I’d like nothing more, Fire Lady.”

            Zuko let Katara see one his rare, face splitting grins when she lifted her head to look at him. With a grin of her own, she led him out of the grand room. Each time someone tried to stop them to talk Katara politely declined. In all his years of governing his nation, Zuko had yet to master the polite but firm way of saying “no” that Katara had developed; she insisted it came from being a mother all her life. When they were free of the ballroom, Zuko felt himself breathe easier. He was on the verge of thanking Katara for helping him escape when he noticed that they hadn’t stopped moving. By the time they made it to the edge of the pond in her garden, Zuko’s eyebrow was nearing his hairline.

            “I haven’t been inside your sanctuary since I presented it to you,” Zuko reminded as Katara revealed the entrance, “What’s changed?”

            “It’s your birthday, silly. Follow me.”

            When they made it to the base of the stairs Zuko stood for a moment to look at the changes his wife had made. The stone walls boasted furs and rugs that Katara had carefully picked out on their most recent visit to her homeland and some that had been sent to her by her family and the tribespeople in the north. Their children’s first baby blankets had been sewn together and were draped over a chair that was closest to the smallest pool of water. The stalagmites overheard had chains of jewels and shells hanging from them that refracted rainbows of light from the wall stones over every surface, making the pools glitter.

            “This is amazing,” Zuko breathed, his eyes trying to take in everything all once.

            “I spent a lot of time in here when you first presented it to me,” Katara told, undoing the complicated twists of her outer robes to reveal the nearly see-through slip beneath it. “It really came together recently, now that I can leave Aiko alone for longer periods of time.”

            Zuko’s eyes had stopped taking in the interior design and had moved to take in his wife’s barely concealed form. This birthday surprise was getting increasingly better as time went on. Katara removed the slip, making his breath come quicker, then sank under the water of the medium sized pool. She sank down to her nose then rose to look over her shoulder at him.

            “Coming?”

            Zuko fumbled around his robes trying to reach her as quickly as possible. Katara rested her arms on the lip of the pool and watched her husband, laughter in her blue eyes. Finally, when Zuko was as bare as the day he was born, he lowered himself in the water. Although his wife was under the surface, he instantly regretted getting in the water. Cold water made his breath come out in gasps and threatened to seize his muscles. With a few measured breaths, he rose his body temperature until the surface of the water bubbled and steam filled the air.

            “I liked the temperature of the water,” Katara said, mock annoyance in her tone as she pressed her body against his. She breathed out, her breath icy against his chest.

            “Maybe you could try to cool me down, waterbender.”

            Katara smirked at Zuko, before bringing her lips, which were quickly forming ice on their surface due to her cold breathing, to his neck. Zuko’s breath left him in a hiss as she pressed kiss after kiss to his skin. When his wife reached his mouth, he put his burning hands on either side of her face, not allowing her to move. Katara sighed into the kiss, pulling a deep rumble for Zuko’s throat. In one fluid motion, she switched their positions so he was against the side of the natural pool and she straddled his waist.

            “You’re burning up, Fire Lord.” Katara incased her hands in ice and ran them down the plains of Zuko’s chest.

 Katara let the ice fall away, creating rivers of cold water down the back of Zuko’s neck and making him shiver, before she kissed him again. Zuko moved his hips, seeking out the apex of his wife’s thighs. Katara broke the kiss to tilt her head her back as she sank down onto him. Zuko let out a shaky breath as he moved again, earning a moan from the woman above him. Katara kept their pace slow, looking into his eyes and pouring her love into him. The water around them sloshed as her breath hitched and her nails dug into his shoulders.

Zuko leaned his head forward, inhaling her scent as Katara’s moans grew louder, filling the space around them. His hands gripped her waist, pulling her to him each time she pushed her body up. His name spilled from her lips as curses tumbled from his. He felt heat coiling in the pit of his stomach as the muscles in his abdomen twitched. One look at Katara, her eyes screwed shut and her mouth falling open perfectly, told him she was close. Zuko opened his mouth to scrape his teeth against the side of her neck. Katara cried out, freezing the surface of all three pools with her release. Zuko threw his head back hurriedly, shooting fire into the air and shattering the ice around them.

Katara moved her wet hair from her face and smirked at her husband. “I let you in here once and you’ve turned it into a sauna.”

Zuko nipped at his wife’s collarbone and chuckled. “That sounds like a wonderful name for our next child.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! I didn't know what would be considered mature and what would be considered explicit so I stuck to the very, very safe side. I hope you enjoyed it. If you couldn't tell, all of these prompts are apart of the same universe except for the upcoming Soulmates prompt which will be a stand alone. Tomorrow is Icarus; expect some major Zuko angst.


	4. Icarus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which: Zuko reflects on fractions of Fire Nation history.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a little dark and has mentions of blood.

There was an unspoken rule in the Fire Nation palace that on the anniversary of the Fire Lord’s previous banishment, no one was supposed to talk to him. He sat in his study, flipping through the history scrolls that detailed how the nation was run under the rule of his father. He remembered how his father had tried so very hard to mold him into his own image. Zuko stewed over the years he spent trying to be everything that Ozai wanted in a son.

            One of Zuko’s hands went to his scar, feeling the folded and uneven skin as the other gripped the glass that was full to the brim of fire whiskey. He picked up another scroll, this one praising Ozai for furthering the power of the Fire Nation. It talked of how his father had snubbed out his weakling of a son, sending him on an impossible mission so that the nation would never fall into Zuko’s uncappable hands. It hailed Azula, calling her the true successor, the only royal child fit to keep the nation on the path to glory. Zuko tipped the glass back, felt the liquor slide through his body, hot and numbing.

            The next scroll was shocked at the Avatar’s reappearance but not so much at the fire prince’s inability to capture a boy of only twelve. It gave a vicious spin to each of Zuko’s failures, comparing them to Azula and how she would have killed the boy at first sight. Zuko had no doubt about that.

            He poured more whiskey into the cup, seeing his pale face reflected on the amber surface. With a growl, he launched the cup into the nearby fire. The flames leapt, feeding off his anger and the alcohol. Zuko was tempted to throw the scrolls into the fire as well but pushed the thought out of his mind. He would not turn into his father, spinning the history of his nation to make it sound better.  

            “You’re weak,” Ozai hissed.

            Zuko pushed away from his desk and stumbled over to the nearest mirror, his feet made unsteady by the whiskey in his blood. The face that stared back was his own but with all the sharp plains of his father’s. Zuko tore the golden crown from his head and sent it sailing at the mirror. When it only sent splinters through the glass showing his reflection, the near spitting image of Ozai’s, laughed.

            “You can’t even do that right. You’re not fit to call yourself my son.”

Zuko tore the mirror from the wall, holding it close to his face, trying to find himself in the golden eyes, the pale skin and dark hair. He latched his eyes onto the angry red of his scar, feeling his heart slow. He was himself.

“Never forget who gave that to you, boy. Even now, when I am far away, I am always with you,” Ozai spat, “I am you.”

“I am not you!” Zuko roared.

He brought the mirror over his head and sent it to crashing to the floor. The shards broke free of the frame, the harsh sound playing over and over in Zuko’s ears. His breath came rapidly. His face was reflected back to him a million times over. Zuko fell to his knees, planting mirror shards into them, and tried to scoop the fragments into the fire. When he looked at his hands, they were a bloody mess.

Zuko heard the door open and sent fire shooting from his mouth. “Get out!”

Katara was across the room in an instant. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and squeezed with all her might. Zuko resisted the embrace, refusing to be put together again.

“I’m not leaving you,” Katara vowed, “I will never leave you, Zuko.”

Zuko finally relented, sagging into his wife’s arms. She spoke his name like a holy prayer, soft and determined. Zuko closed his eyes, feeling tears spill from them. This was always how the anniversary ended, with him crying and desperately trying to remind himself that he was not his father, that the abuse that he endured did not define him. That he was worthy.

“I’ve got you,” Katara whispered, rocking him back and forth, “I’ve got you, my love.”

Zuko let her love leak beneath his skin. His father had tried to mold him in his image, to twist him and make him cruel. Zuko had been so close to becoming that person, so close to using the wax wings that his father had given him to fly into the sun. Zuko leaned his head back and openly wept. In her arms, he felt secure. He was certain that without his uncle’s guidance he would have met an early end. He was certain that he would have fallen to the ground, instead of into the ocean that was his wife. Into the healing waters that wrapped around his hands and knees now and brought him peace.

At least for another year.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Zuko endured all kinds abuse that someone can possibly come in contact with and that's something that stays with someone for their entire life. I think it's very important to remember that while Zuko is great and adorable and awkward, he is also an abuse survivor. He has to constantly live with being reminded of his father, the man that put him through hell. He has love around him and in this fic he has a wife and kids and lifelong friends but that doesn't mean he's 100% okay. Recovery is never ending. Thank you for reading.


	5. Modern Soulmates

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All soulmates have a connection where they feel each other's pain but don't know what is causing it. We get to know someone through their pain. This becomes a lot more painful when two soulmates have heaps on childhood drama.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Modern Times and Soulmates prompt mixed.

“Why is Sokka so moody all the time?” Katara asked, settling herself in her mother’s wide lap.

            Kya bent her head to rub her chin in her daughter’s hair. “Sokka just started to feel connected to his soulmate. My guess is she’s going through her first moon cycle.”

            Katara scrunched her small face. “What does being connected to your soulmate mean? And what’s a moon cycle?”

            “Soulmates are a tricky business. You feel each other’s pain in real time but you never know what’s causing it.” Kya looked away from her daughter, her eyes focusing on nothing but her mind on her husband, who was away at war. She’d felt a dull ache in her shoulder for the past week.

            “That’s stupid,” Katara proclaimed, turning her toddler chin in the air. “I don’t want a soulmate.”

            “Well, not everyone has one. But you,” Kya said, flicking her daughter’s nose with her index finger, “you will surely have one. No one can look at you and not fall in love with you, my little artic wolf.”

            Katara crossed her chubby arms and gave a small ‘humph’ at the idea of one day having a soulmate. “What’s a moon cycle?”

            “In time, you will find out.”

___________

            Zuko felt a sharp sting in his knee and brushed his hand over the uninjured spot. When he realized that nothing had bitten _him_ , he turned his face to the sky and groaned. Ursa looked up from where she sat on their large couch, reading a story to Azula, and raised an eyebrow at her soon. Zuko had thrown one of action figures across the room.

            “How do I stop having a soulmate?” Zuko whined, “They get hurt all the time. It’s annoying.” His mother had taught him from the first twinge of phantom pain to refer to his soulmate as the gender neutral “they” so he didn’t get an idea in his head and shut out his future soulmate if that person didn’t match.

            Ursa smiled at her son as Azula glared, mad at him for yet again taking away her attention. “You don’t know what’s going on, Zuko. Maybe they’re in the circus and they’re doing really dangerous stunts.”

            “I know who could be in the circus!” Azula announced, trying and failing to get her mother’s attention. “I know Zuzu’s soulmate.”

            Zuko was poised to tell Azula that she most certainly did not know his soulmate when he felt a hollow pain in his chest. The pain was unlike any of the others he’d experienced. Instead of being sharp, it was dull. It was emotional. Tears prickled at the edge of his eyes, clouding his vision. He wanted to stop feeling this pain immediately. It made him want to rip his heart out of his chest and stomp on it. It made it want to crawl under his blankets in his race car bed and not come out for the rest of his life.

            His mother was at his side in an instant. “Zuko, what’s wrong? Zuko, talk to me.”

            Zuko took his balled fists and pressed them into his eyes as he tried to stop the sobs that were building in his chest. “I don’t know. It’s my soulmate. Something is happening. I don’t like this.”

            Ursa wrapped her arms around her son, rocking him back and forth as he sobbed. Azula looked on in horror. In that moment, she decided that if she ever felt the twinge of pain that wasn’t hers, she find her soulmate and kill them before they could do this to her. As Zuko howled, begging their mother to make it stop, Azula ran to find their father.

            Zuko cried for days. When Ursa brought his favorite meals, prepared with extra care by the family’s cook, Zuko only turned his face towards the wall. He only agreed to talk to someone when Iroh came to the family’s large mansion. Ozai sneered at his brother, not condoning the way his wife was already coddling the boy. He was glad he’d never felt a soulmate connection.

            “It still hurts,” Zuko whispered to his uncle, “Why does it hurt? Are they dying? My soulmate is going to die before we meet each other.”

            Iroh looked at his nephew with sad eyes. “Describe it to me, nephew.”

            Zuko pulled his covers beneath his chin. “I feel like I’ll never be happy or whole again. The pain is deep in me but I can’t pinpoint where it’s coming from. It’s driving me crazy. I want to crawl in a hole. But I feel so angry.”

            “Nephew, your soulmate is going through immense grief.” Iroh’s eyes began to water as he remembered that feeling. “As much as this hurts you, know that your soulmate is going through this after having really lost someone. Be strong, Zuko. Be strong and try to give your strength to your soulmate.”

            More tears slipped from Zuko’s eyes. “It’s hard.”

            Iroh placed a kiss on his nephew’s forehead. “I know.”

 ____________

            Katara groaned as she rolled free of her furs. The soreness that she felt in her muscles was not her own, despite having finished her moon cycle a day before. No, she’d been waking up with phantom soreness in her muscles ever since she’d turned ten. Now, at the age of twelve, she was sick of it. She’d known she could waterbend since before her mother had been killed by outside police coming illegally onto their reservation but had forced it down. She was done with that now; if her soulmate seemed so intent on giving her the illusion of stiff muscles everyday then she would surely do the same to her soulmate.

            “Where are you going?” Sokka asked, egg halfway to his mouth and a mechanics textbook propped up on his orange juice cup.

            “I’m going to learn to waterbend.”

            Sokka let out a small squeak as Kanna dropped the bowl she’d been holding. Katara stomped out of the small house before either of them could say anything. She went to the barn that belonged to their neighbor and who sometimes asked Sokka to look after his horses. As it went, Katara didn’t bend a single drop of water that day but she was sure that she’d be sore in the morning. With that small satisfaction in the back of her mind, she went back inside to wash up.

            It was a few months after Katara had begun her training, getting back at a soulmate she didn’t know, that she regretted the small pettiness. She had a stream of water hovering in the air, balanced a breath away from her fingertips when she felt it. The pain she’d tried so hard to block out years ago hit her full force. The water fell to the hard packed dirt floor with a splash that she barely registered.

            Sokka found his sister an hour later, curled with her knees pressed to her chest and her long hair hanging over face. The sounds that were coming from her were almost anima-like but not unfamiliar. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders, hugging her to his chest and stroking her back.

            “I’ve got you, Tara,” Sokka soothed, “I’m right here. It’s a memory. It’s okay.”

            “It’s not a memory,” Katara wailed, “My soulmate… my soulmate lost a mom too. Just now.”

            Sokka dropped his head to the crown of his sister’s head and let himself cry. “Do what they did for you. Send them strength.”

____________

 

            Zuko no longer cared about his soulmate. He punched fire from his fists, wishing that he knew what face what to picture. His mother was gone and he couldn’t help but feel his soulmate had cursed him. He’d forgotten about the pain he’d had to feel when his soulmate lost a parent only to feel it tenfold when it happened to him.

            Zuko roared and punched. When he felt a sharp pain in his arm, like a bone breaking, he roared again. Zuko refused to let the pain become his own, refused to be bothered by the connection anymore. The pain turned into a burning that told him his soulmate has broken a bone for sure.

            “I don’t want this,” Zuko shouted.

            He shouted at no one. He shouted at everyone. Iroh looked at his nephew with deep worried etched into the lines of his face.

___________

            The soulmate connection had felt wrong felt wrong the past year but Katara tried to tell herself that she didn’t really care. She was in high school now, she had a boyfriend who worshiped the ground she walked on and he’d lost his entire family. Maybe the connection was off because she’d finally found her soulmate. Katara smiled at Aang, who lounged in the café beanbag chair across from her, trying to convince herself that this brotherly love would one day transform into romantic affection.

            “I think you would turn to the vegan lifestyle if you just watched this Netflix documentary,” Aang said, yet again, trying to shove his laptop towards her.

            Katara stuck her foot out, putting a toe on the back of the laptop to keep it away from her. “And I’m telling you that if you tried Gran’s sea prune stew or if you’d tried my mom’s polar bear burgers marinated in penguin blubber you’d eat more meat than Sokka.”

            “I think I’m gonna be sick,” Aang joked, popping an almond in his mouth.

            Katara’s laugh died in her throat when the left side of her face began to burn. The burn quickly transformed into an excruciating pain that had Katara pitching towards the floor and clutching a hand to her face. Aang flitted to Katara’s side, trying to find a place to put his hands to soothe whatever pain was happening. The other people in the café watched as Katara screamed, her fingers clawing at the soft carpet. One of the barista’s, who’d been connected to her soulmate for years, came from behind the counter and pulled Katara into the sitting position. The dark-skinned girl was crying now, clutching her eye that seemed uninjured, and shaking.

            “Where does she live?” Suki demanded, her eyes intense as she turned to Aang.

            “On the reservation,” Aang answered. “I don’t understand. I don’t feel anything. What’s going on?”

            “Can you take me to her house?”

            “Yes. Why don’t I feel this pain?”

            “Go get me a trashcan. She might vomit if the pain is this bad.”

            Aang ran to get a small pail that was filled with failed drinks and plastic cups and brought it to the intense girl who held the girl he desperately wanted to be his soulmate. Suki ushered a screaming Katara outside to her car and put her in the back, laying on her side with the trashcan near her head. While Aang gave directions, he glanced back to Katara was sobbing and asking them what was happening to her face.

            Gran-Gran hobbled out of the house as soon as Suki came to a screeching stop. Katara’s screams from the backseat drew Sokka, still wet from his half-finished shower, to the porch. He shoved Aang aside, focused only on his now puking sister.

            “What’s happening to her?” Sokka demanded.

            “I think it’s her soulmate,” Suki told calmly, “I can’t see anything wrong with her.”

            Aang put a hand to his eye. “I think I feel something.”

            “This is not about you,” Sokka growled.

Sokka’s anger was forgotten when Katara’s screaming suddenly cut off as she passed out from the sudden and intense pain. Sokka caught his sister, falling to the ground and scrapping his knee. Gravel planted itself in the brown skin, causing blood to dribble down.

            “Ow, what the fuck,” Suki hissed, slapping a hand to her knee. She and Sokka locked eyes before nodding. “We’ll talk about it later.”

__________

            Zuko, who was visiting his uncle to tell him about the new job he’d landed, gripped the edge of the table, a hiss coming from his mouth. After years of only feeling fleeting pain, he was sure the connection to his soulmate was dormant. Obviously, it had just been woken up.

            Iroh refilled his cup with jasmine tea and raised a grey eyebrow at his nephew. “Is everything okay?”

            “Can you look at my back for me? I think something bit me or there’s a tag stabbing me in the back.”

            Iroh shifted so that he could look at his nephew’s pale back. There was nothing, not even a superficial scratch. When he told Zuko as much, the man huffed into his tea, causing it to boil.

            “I was worried about that. This should be over soon.”

            It lasted for several hours on end. The pain started at his lower back before moving, ever slowly upwards. When it hit his spine, Zuko arched his back and let out more hisses. His soulmate had just better have been dying because if not, he was going to kill whoever it was himself for putting him in this pain. After a full seven hours, the pain was no longer as sharp, showing the worst of it was over.

_________

            “Mr. Lorde,” one of Zuko’s advisors announced, “The representative from the Southern Water Reservation is here to see you.”

            Zuko waved his hand, telling the advisor to let the woman who had rescheduled the meeting twice, inside. A tall woman, with brown skin, brown hair and piercing blue eyes, walking into the meeting room. She commanded attention with every step. Zuko sat up straighter in his chair. When Katara’s eyes finally fell on his face, she paused. Zuko was all too used to this reaction to his scar.

            “When did you get that?” Katara breathed.

            Zuko glared at this woman. “Is that really how you want to start a meeting with a man who’s offering to expand the boundaries of your reservation?”

            “Excuse me, I didn’t mean it in that way.” Katara sighed when Zuko’s glare didn’t lessen.

            Instead of replying, Katara sucked in a deep breath to steady her nerves. She propped her bag against her leg and began untucking her button-down shirt from her pencil skirt. Zuko’s single eyebrow began to climb towards his hairline. Before he could press the button to signal security, Katara pulled her shirt up to expose her back.

            A beautiful scene of the artic was spread out in ink forever on her skin. As it went up he saw characters in a language he could read along her spine with the Aurora Borealis near her shoulders. Zuko’s mouth hung open as he stared at the seven hours’ worth of art on her back.

            Katara looked over her shoulder at the stunned business man. “I think we’re soulmates, Mr. Lorde.”

            “Let’s postpone this meeting, Ms. La. It seems we have a lot to talk about.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually had a prompt planned on for Modern Times but I couldn't bring myself to write anything. Instead, I decided to just keep the original Soulmates prompt I had planned out because it was set in modern times anyway. I hope you like this and I'm so sorry for any typos. It took me so long to write it and I just needed to get it out there.


	6. Starlight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the world gets a new star.

“He’ll be gone before the night is over,” the physician told.

            Cana hugged Aiko to her chest as her younger sister sobbed. Out of all three siblings, she’d been the one who was closet to their parents as the youngest. Cana craned her neck and tilted her neck to look at her brother, Kylo, who was trying his hardest to hold back his tears. Cana waved him over and wrapped her arms around him too. It didn’t matter what nations they moved to, they were always going to be family.

            “It’s not fair that we have to lose them both so close to each other,” Kylo whispered, tears flowing down his face.

            Aiko nodded vigorously in agreement. Cana had learned to keep her emotions hidden at the same time the Fire Lord had been placed in her hair but even now she couldn’t stop her body from shaking. She’d left her wife in charge of the nation so that she could go to Earth Kingdom, where Zuko had moved into Iroh’s old apartment after Katara passed away. That had been a little over two years ago and everyone who knew her father knew that he had never fully recovered. The doctors said that he was simply passing of old age but Cana wondered if Zuko was actually passing away from a broken heart, or if their mother was calling out for her soulmate.

            “Let’s go see, Dad,” Kylo said, his voice thick, “We can blubber tomorrow.”

            Cana bumped her brother’s hip with her own, forcing a smile. “You’ve been hanging out with cousin Jr. too much.”

            The three siblings entered the small room to see their father laying on his low bed. For a moment Cana was worried that they’d missed his final moments when she saw his eyes closed but breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the shallow rise and fall of his chest. She sat down next to her father’s head and took one of his liver spotted hands. Zuko opened his eyes slowly. When he saw his children around him, the former Fire Lord smile and let out a long, raspy cough.

            Kylo bent water into a cup before passing it to him. “Drink this.”

            “What was it your mother said?” Zuko asked after drinking the water. “’All I had to do was die for all my children to wait on me hand and foot.’”

            Aiko turned her face to get herself under control. “And I told her that I was always there to wait on her.”

            Zuko reached up shakily to touch Aiko’s face. “Don’t be sad that I’m leaving. Me and your mother will be watching over you all for as long as the stars are in the sky.” Zuko’s eyes grew sharper for a moment as he took in his children’s faces. “You have all made us so, so happy.”

            Cana squeezed her father’s hand as he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Aiko’s breath caught in her chest when they realized their father was no breathing. Kylo balled up his fist and shoved his knuckles into his eyes as his sisters hugged.

            Zuko’s spirit rose from his body and saw his children sharing their grief. In that moment, he wanted to go back in his body and hold them close but he knew he couldn’t.

            “They’ll be okay,” Katara promised.

            Zuko looked over and saw Katara, as beautiful as the day he’d realized he’d loved her for a very long time, standing near Kylo. She looked at their children with sadness in her eyes before turning to her husband. Zuko rose from the bed and took the hand she offered him.

            “I’ve been waiting for you, my love,” Katara confessed, “It’s so good to feel your hand in mine again.”

            “It’s like you never left,” Zuko told, a smile lighting up his face.

            Katara’s answering smile was brilliant. When the two kissed, their spirits left the room, making Kylo—who had always been hyperaware of the spirit world—shiver. He tried to be happy that his parents had found each other again. When he moved to look out of the window of his father’s apartment, he could have sworn that there was a new star in the sky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another Zutara Week in the books! I hope that my entries were a pleasure for you all to read and I hope the week treated you well. Thank you so much for reading.


End file.
